Far West

Tax law changes allowing the tax credits of tax-credit bonds to be stripped and sold separately to investors have increased the risk for improper or fraudulent tax credit claims, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a June 26 report.

The Senate confirmed Michael Piwowar and Kara Stein as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission by unanimous consent Thursday evening.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook for the District of Columbia's approximately $2.2 billion of outstanding general obligation bonds to stable from negative, and the ratings agency affirmed the bonds' Aa2 rating.

Nearly a dozen state and local groups are urging Congress to restore significant cuts that were made to the clean water and drinking water state revolving fund programs in the latest appropriations bill.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman confirmed a taskforce has been formed to investigate political corruption in Orange County, but no information has been released about the impetus or targets of the investigation.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in the San Bernardino Chapter 9 case will appoint Gregg Zive, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Reno, Nev., district, as mediator.

Peter Koht, Santa Cruz's economic development director, has left the department after four and a half years.

Washington State is planning to sell $864 million of general obligation bonds in a competitive offering next week after receiving improved outlooks from two credit rating agencies.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is seeking input from market participants on whether it should collect pre-trade pricing information from broker-dealers and make it available over its online EMMA system.

If the top individual tax rate were lowered to 25% from the current 39.6%, as favored by Republicans, and the alternative minimum tax were repealed, it would cost $3.77 trillion over 10 years, a new Joint Committee on Taxation report said Wednesday.